Writing Systems PowerPoint

Anthropology 340 LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Writing Systems

The Beginning of History When: Writing began about 3,400 years ago. Where: The earliest evidence for writing has been found in Mesopotamia, located in what is now Iraq. Who: The Sumerians Why: The earliest evidence for writing appears to be for recording quantities and concepts, not for representing speech.

Types of Writing Non-Phonetic

Phonetic

• Pictographs

1.Syllabic

• Ideographs

2.Consonantal

• Logographs

3.Alphabetic

Sumerian Script Sumerian script began as a pictographic writing and then became more stylized as time went on and the Sumerians gave way to the Babylonian and Assyrian cultures.

Pictographic Writing Pictographic writing tells stories through pictures

Pictographs Minoan culture developed on the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea south of Greece and south west of Turkey at about 2000 BC.

Examples of Pictographs Used Today

Easter Island Writing

The writing from Easter Island has not been decyphered. It appears to be at least partially pictographic but may be ideographic or logographic in nature.

Ideograms 1. Hittite Culture that ruled Anatolia (what is now Turkey) between 2000 and 1700 BC 2. Nigeria in the early 20th Century 3. Indus Valley

Modern Idiograms

Anatolian Hieroglyphics (Turkey) are Logograms

Chinese Characters as Logograms

Mixtec Logographic Script • http://www.ancientscripts.com/mixtec.html • Arabic Consonantal Alphabetic • http://www.ancientscripts.com/arabic.html

Chinese (Older Version)

Modern Korean

Maya Glyphs

Egyptian Hieroglyphics are a mixture of alphabetic and logographic writing.

The Transition from Hieroglyphic to Phonological Script as the Phoenicians borrowed and modified the Egyptians’ writing system

Consonantal Writing The Phoenicians developed a phonological writing system based on consonants only, depending on the reader to fill in the vowels. This characteristic was carried on in Hebrew until diacritic marks were added to consonants to fill in some of the vowel sounds.

Syllabic Script from Cyprus

Japanese Writing Systems • Kanji = characters of Chinese origin (combine logographs and syllabary symbols) used for nouns and verb stems • Hirigana = a syllabary used for verb ending and grammatical participles (on, to) • Katakana = used for non-Japanese words or loan words

Alphabetic Writing is a phonological writing system that has a different symbol for each vowel and consonant sound.

Runic Carving with Writing

Study Guide Writing Mesopotamia Sumeria Pictographs Ideographs Hieroglyphics Glyphs Logographs

Syllabic writing Consonantal writing Alphabetic writing Kanji writing Hiragana Katakana Runes